KQV (AM)
'''KQV is a radio station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The station, which is owned by Calvary, Inc., broadcasts @ 1410 kHz, with 5,000 watts of power day & night. KQV's call letters reportedly stand for King of the Quaker Valley. The station is 1 of 2 in the market that use call letters starting with K, a type of callsign not normally found east of the Mississippi River. KQV is also the flagship station for Duquesne University men's basketball. History Origins KQV was 1 of Pittsburgh's 5 original AM stations, signing on as amateur station "8ZAE" on November 19 1919, predating KDKA which was granted the distinction of being the nation's first commercially licensed station in 1920. KQV did not receive a commercial license until January 9 1922, despite having started transmitting 3 years earlier. The only 3 other radio stations east of the Mississippi that have a callsign starting with K are in Pennsylvania & Wisconsin. Besides KDKA, there's also KYW in Philadelphia (though the KYW callsign has in the past been used in Chicago & Cleveland) & KFIZ in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. KQV is the only 1 of the 3 in PA that has never had an associated TV station. "The Groovy QV" KQV was extremely successful as a top 40 station during the late 1950s, 1960s & 1970s, owned by ABC for nearly all of that period. Known variously as "Colorful KQV", "Audio 14", "Groovy QV" & "The Big 14" over the years, KQV premiered it's top 40 format on January 13, 1958 & is remembered for it's high-profile, high-energy personalities, such as Chuck Brinkman, Hal Murray, Dave Scott, Steve Rizen, Dex Allen, Jim Quinn, future game show announcer Rod Roddy & their large-scale promotion of a Beatles concert @ Pittsburgh's Civic Arena (now the Mellon Arena) in 1964 & it's former showcase studios @ the Chamber of Commerce Building ("on the corner of Walk & Don't Walk", as the DJs would say) in downtown Pittsburgh, where the disk jockeys could be watched through a large window. Dominant with young listeners throughout the 1960s, the station was a major force in breaking new music & introducing Pittsburgh to new artists such as Sonny & Cher, The Rolling Stones, The Supremes, The Beach Boys, Dave Clark Five & others. KQV slowly began to decline after 1970 with the advent of new competition & the rise of FM radio (including it's then-sister station WDVE, which began life as KQV-FM). 1 of KQV's top-40 personalities in the 1970s, with the on-air name of "Jeff Christie", later became famous as a talk-show host under his real name, Rush Limbaugh. KQV & WDVE were sold by ABC Radio to Taft Broadcasting in 1974, made another attempt @ Top 40 (this time far more radical than before, with Joey Reynolds as program director) before dropping the format altogether. It's final night as a top 40 station was October 14, 1975. All-News, All The Time The next morning, October 15th 1975, the station switched to it's present all-news format, carrying NBC Radio's 24-hour News & Information Service. Even though NBC infamously cancelled the service 2 years later, KQV's all-news stint remained & has lasted even longer than it's Top 40 era. In 1982, Taft executives told General Manager Robert W. Dickey that it intended to unload the station. Dickey sought - & received - financial backing from billionaire newspaper publisher Richard Mellon Scaife. Together, the 2 men formed Calvary, Inc. & purchased the station from Taft that same year. Calvary continues to own the station & celebrated the all-news format's 30th anniversary in 2005. Today Now in it's 33rd year, KQV's all-news format provides listeners with non-stop news, sports, traffic & weather from 5 AM-7 PM on weekdays. It's format is similar to that of other traditional all-news stations, featuring "Traffic & Weather on the 8's", Sports @ :15 & :45 past each hour & business news @ :20 & :50 past. KQV's 5,000-watt signal, eminating from 5 towers located in Pittsburgh's North Hills, is highly directional & widely regarded as 1 of the market's poorest. The station also suffers in the Arbitron ratings, often attracting less than 1 percent of the total Pittsburgh radio audience & in many cases outperformed by smaller suburban stations. KQV's primary weekday anchors are P.J. Maloney, Joe Fenn, Bruce Sakalik & Dan Weinberg. Steve Lohle had also been a fixture as KQV's afternoon news anchor for 34 years until his death on Friday, June 20, 2008 of an apparent heart attack. In addition to it's news content & several public affairs programs, the station is home to a number of live sporting events, including NFL football, Notre Dame football & Duquesne Dukes basketball, as well as high school sports & play-by-play. During evening hours, the station broadcasts "When Radio Was", a series featuring classic radio programs such as Suspense & The Jack Benny Show, among others. Also on Sundays a weekly radio series, known as "Imagination Theater", is broadcast. External links *KQV 1410 AM's Website *Jeff Roteman's KQV website